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Hoisted on stilts and sprouting from trees about 100 feet up a Mississippi River bluff, the Isle of Capri hotel has maxed out every night since Memorial Day.
At ground level, a three-deck, 19,000-square-foot riverboat casino floats idly in the river.
The Capri structures sit between the northeast Iowa sister cities of Marquette and McGregor.
Marquette, population 475, and McGregor, population 900, are 1.5 miles apart. Together, they might best foreshadow the effects of a casino's launch in a small town such as Riverside. In fact, when developers of the Riverside casino were looking for an area on which to model their venture, they came to this scenic region.
While Riverside begins its venture Thursday, gambling has been part of the Marquette-McGregor landscape for 10 years now. Overall, local feedback is mostly positive. Some opposition to gambling remains, but there is little evidence of the crime, bankruptcies and other societal ills predicted by opponents. Most locals praise the casino as a neighbor and business partner, and credit it with revitalizing the area.
"It's good for the whole area. It's a good employer -- for some, the best job they ever had," said area chamber of commerce president Connie Halvorson.
The casino opened in Dec-ember 1994 as the Miss Marquette, which remains the name of the vessel. Lady Luck took over briefly in 2000, before the Isle of Capri, which moved headquarters to St. Louis from Biloxi, Miss., bought the floating casino the same year. All operators have used the Clayton County gaming license held by the Upper Mississippi Gaming Corp.
"Before the boat, this place was a dump -- same with McGregor," said Paul Thompson, 45, of Marquette. "Traffic sometimes is a pain in the (expletive), but (the casino) is good for everything."
About 600,000 people pass through the casino gates annually, a drop of about 150,000 since the first year, according to the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.
Most patrons travel from a 100-mile radius in the tri-state region of northeast Iowa, southwest Wisconsin and southeast Minnesota. For the Riverside venture, developers expect customers to come from as far as 200 miles.
Competition is steeper today than when Miss Marquette opened in January 1994, when there were three riverboat casinos. Now, 12 years later, there are 15 licensed gambling operators. Four more, including the Riverside casino, will open before the close of 2006.
Still, Isle of Capri General Manager Barron Fuller contends that gaming growth is good for the industry, and revenue reports support his claim. In its first full year, the casino brought in $29 million. That has swelled to $42 million in fiscal 2006, records from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission show.
The drive to stay competitive, though, stirs thoughts of expansion, complementary development such as hotels and possibly a new location, Fuller said.
Capri is confined by its license to Clayton County but not to Marquette, and the possibility of the casino leaving has the now financially dependent town scurrying for options.
"Ultimately every operator is thinking about how to get off the river," Fuller said, referring to lower maintenance costs of land-based casinos such as Riverside. "Our question is, 'Do we grow in Marquette? Do we grow in a new facility?'"
A changing region
Like many river towns, McGregor and Marquette flourished as major railroad transfers in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but the towns suffered as the industry dwindled.
Terry Sharp, 68, is a retired Milwaukee Railroad worker and now chairs the Marquette Historical Society. He said the casino has helped lift the area back up.
"We depend a lot more on tourism now," he said. "People just learn to adapt to the changing times."
However, not all merchants say they have seen a boost in tourism. Sam Calabrese, owner of the Alexander Hotel in McGregor, said most visitors he sees follow the bridge across the Mississippi River to the town of Prairie Du Chien, Wis., population 6,000, and spend money at its restaurants, hotels and shops.
"It stops at the river. Prairie Du Chien gets most of the visitors," he said. "I get nothing from the boat. We will have guests that come because they love McGregor and will go to the boat because they see it as something to do. I don't see McGregor as thriving because of the boat."
Dave and Joan Martin, owners of the Marquette Café and Bar, and Deb Johnson, manager of Josie River Queen Restaurant and Bar in McGregor, disagree.
"Our business picks up when gamblers are in town," Johnson said.
Eugene Trudo, 77, was mayor of Marquette during the negotiating and opening phases of the casino. The town was poor at the time, he said, and had difficulty paying for basic utility repairs.
"We couldn't even dig up a sewer leak or fix a water leak," Trudo said. "If that boat didn't come in, Marquette would have very few people -- McGregor, too."
The influx of tax dollars from the casino, about $1.34 million annually, has quadrupled the Marquette budget to $3 million, and given the city a total face-lift.
The added revenue also has helped expansion. A new 160-acre subdivision with 69 lots and $200,000 homes will help a slowly blossoming population -- the town has added 55 people since the casino opened.
Mike Puksich, who was hired in 2006 as the first city manager, said his position would have never been created without the casino.
"We are getting accustomed to having that money. In a way, we are dependent on it," Puksich said.
The possibility of the casino relocating has Puksich assessing options.
"We want to work with them and make sure they stay in the city. They've been a good neighbor. They do a lot for the community. We want to find a place to keep them here," he said.
County improvements
Marquette reaps the bulk of tax base revenue. But the other county towns as well as the county government benefit from the tourism, tax dollars and funding for non-profit programs the riverboat brings.
For 12 years until resigning in July, Norma Mason chaired the Upper Mississippi Gaming Corp., which is the nonprofit license holder for the Isle of Capri. The corporation nets 50 cents for every visitor to Capri and, per state mandate, distributes those funds to nonprofits in the county.
Receiving between 20 and 90 applications, the corporation disburses $100,000 to $200,000 on a semi-annual basis.
In Washington County, projections show Riverside Casino's license holder, Washington County Riverboat Foundation, will distribute about $3.3 million annually, or about 3.5 percent of gambling revenues to county nonprofit agencies, according to Riverside Casino & Golf Resort General Manager Joe Massa.
Social expectations
Expectations of crime, gambling addiction and broken banks have never materialized.
"There really hasn't been an increase in crime. (The only casino-related incidents) are the increase in traffic-related incidents," Mar-Mac Police Chief Randall Grady said.
However, there are still critics. Celeste Kruse, 49, lives in a small residential neighborhood near the casino. The casino is a waste of space, she said.
"That is the worst thing on the planet, and God will come knock that thing down some day," Kruse said. "I look at it and see what God shows me: a herd of sheep going in for the slaughter."
Dennis Gilbert, pastor of Living Faith United Methodist, counsels about 25 people per month. Fifteen percent of them have gambling-related problems, such as marital issues, large money losses and addiction.
"There were not necessarily a lot of situations, but the ones that were are substantial," he said.
Although Kruse and Gilbert oppose gambling, they acknowledge the absence of widespread problems and say there have been some positives.
The workers
Of the 400 employees aboard the Isle of Capri, 250 are Iowans, including about 180 from Clayton County. Not everybody is happy with what the boat is paying its people.
Cody Trentin, 21, of Marquette, works at 3M, an employer of 500 people in Prairie Du Chien.
"I thought about working at the casino," Trentin said. "I had a bunch of friends working there. Some quit, some have been fired. There is high turnover. The pay is not that great."
Capri paid $13 million for salaries and benefits in 2005. Hourly employees are averaging $11.60 in 2006, and many of them also receive tips, said senior marketing director Jackie Lee. State law requires casinos to pay 25 percent above minimum wage, or $6.44.
Although Riverside and Marquette-McGregor are miles apart geographically and in many other ways, there's no denying that the new venture in Riverside is likely to affect life just as much as the floating casino did when it first opened in northeast Iowa.
Trudo, the former Marquette mayor, said he is familiar with the stories about Riverside's new land-based casino, and he thinks it will be a positive for the community of about 925 people.
"(Riverside) needs it. You have to build your tax base," Trudo said. "It has been a big plus for the area."
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